The Cost of Being Rich

Luke chapter 16. This is a story that's a pretty

Luke 16 · chapter mention

popular story from the New Testament. It's a

story about a rich man and a man named Lazarus.

Some of you may have heard it before. And if

you haven't ever heard it, then listen carefully

today. You might want to mark it down in your

Bible and go back and study it in a little more

detail this week. We'll just look at it for a

few minutes this morning. But we're going to

read through the story, and then we'll pray.

And after we pray, we'll continue on. Luke chapter

Luke 16:19

16, verse 19. There was a rich man who would

dress in purple and fine linen, feasting lavishly

every day. But a poor man named Lazarus, covered

with sores, was left at his gate. He longed to

be filled with what fell from the rich man's

table, but instead the dogs would come and lick

his sores. One day the poor man died and was

carried away by the angels to Abraham's side.

The rich man also died and was buried. And being

in torment in Hades, he looked up and saw Abraham

a long way off with Lazarus at his side. Father

Abraham, he called out, have mercy on me and

send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in

water and cool my tongue because I am in agony

in this flame. Son, Abraham said, remember that

during your life you received your good things

just as Lazarus received bad things. But now

he is comforted here while you are in agony.

Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed

between us and you, so that those who want to

pass over from here to you cannot, neither can

those from there cross over to us. Father, he

said, then I beg you to send him to my father's

house, because I have five brothers, to warn

them, so they won't also come to this place of

torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and

the prophets. They should listen to them. No,

Father Abraham, he said, but if someone from

the dead goes to them, they will repent. But

he told him, if they don't listen to Moses and

the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone

rises from the dead. Let's pray. God, we come

to you. We thank you for your good word. I pray,

God, that you just would... Bless the reading

of your word today. I pray that you just would

help us to be focused on you and not distracted

by the things and the worries of this world,

dear Lord. There's a lot of stuff in this passage

for us to consider and think about today, but

I pray that your Holy Spirit would guide us to

help us get the things from this passage that

we need to get. I pray, God, that you would take

away any fear or pride that's within me and let

every word that's spoken today be for your glory.

I pray that you'd help us to pay attention to

you, that we'd hear from you today. And I ask

these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, this

story is a lot for us to unpack, a lot for us

to think about and to try to figure out. Now,

there are a couple things that we'll talk about

before we really start breaking it down to kind

of get these things out of the way so we don't

get too caught up in the weeds and miss the point.

Now, it's hard to know if this story is a parable.

or if it's a true story. That's been debated

for a long time. It's really no way to know.

There could have possibly been a real rich man

and a real person named Lazarus, and Jesus is

repeating these real events that occurred. It

could be that this is a parable, that this is

not real events with real people, but just simply

a story that Jesus is using to make a... spiritual

point. We really don't know which one of those

it is. If it's a true story, then of course that

leads to more questions. Questions that we will

not even attempt to talk about today just for

time's sake. We see things that are interesting

here. Where Lazarus goes when he dies. He goes

to Abraham's side. Is that heaven? Is that somewhere

that's not heaven? A place people go before Jesus

died on the cross? Well, we don't know the answer

to that. We see that It appears as though people

can see one another from these two places. If

one is heaven and the other is hell, in the story

we see a conversation going on that one can see

the other. Abraham mentions that there's a chasm

between so that neither can go from one place

to another. Now these are questions that are

not easy to answer. We don't know the answer

to that. We should be careful before we try to

draw too many conclusions about... what heaven

may be like or what hell may be like and those

things that go on. Especially if this is indeed

a parable, then Jesus is simply giving a story

to make a bigger point. Now whether it's a parable

or whether it's true, I don't know. We're not

going to ponder that too much today. But I think

that there is a main point to the story, a couple

of points really, and they may not... instantly

be easy for us to see what those points are.

Now, it's important for us when we read through

the scripture is to try to read through the scripture

in context. Now, it's easy for us to pick out

a story like this, but to really understand,

I think, what Jesus is saying, we need to look

at the rest of the story. We need to look at

the verses that come before this. Now, what you

see a few verses before this in Luke chapter

Luke 16 · chapter mention

16, is that Jesus is talking a lot about money,

or the misuse of money, or people who love their

money and their possessions, but they're not

using it in a godly way. Now we see that in another

parable that Jesus gives just a few verses up.

Now we're not going to cover all of it, but if

you go back and you look at the beginning of

the chapter of Luke 16, you're going to see a

parable of a dishonest manager. Now you can read

that this week and you can kind of see what goes

on. But down toward the end of the story, we

kind of see the main point of what Jesus was

saying. And this is what he says in verse 10.

He says, in very little is also faithful in much.

And whoever is unrighteous in very little is

also unrighteous in much. So if you have not

been faithful with the unrighteous money, who

will trust you with what is genuine? And if you

have not been faithful with what belongs to someone

else, who will give you what is your own? No

household Slave can be a slave of two masters,

since he will either hate one and love the other,

or he will be devoted to one and despise the

other. You can't be slaves to both God and money.

Okay, so we see at the end of the parable, kind

of skip to the point, that Jesus says we need

to be faithful with what God gives us. It's not

ours. We need to be faithful with it. Now this

money we have in this world, he refers to as

unrighteous money. That is, it's just money.

Like it doesn't need to become our God. It doesn't

need to become what we worship, what we seek,

what we desire, what we live for. And yeah, we've

got money. We've got a little money. What are

we going to do with it? It's just money. You

can use it to do a lot of evil, or you could

use it to do a lot of good. You can use it to

eat and to pay your bills and to help other people.

Or you can just use it all on yourself for all

of what you want. You can pad your bank account

with it. You can have big numbers in that bank

account and go in there every time you go to

the bank and say, what's my balance? And just

rejoice that you've got hundreds of thousands

or millions of dollars in the bank. And you can

feel so good about yourself. But what are you

doing with what the Lord has given you? And sometimes

we may be tempted to say, well, I don't have

much, and if I had more, I'd give more. Well,

maybe you would. But then again, maybe you wouldn't.

Because those who are faithful with a little

will be faithful with a lot. So maybe if we're

not faithful with what little God gives us, if

you had $10 million tomorrow, maybe you wouldn't

be any more faithful with that. But what God

desires is for us not to be lovers of money,

but to be people who realize what God gives us

is to be used for his kingdom. It is his. And

so that kind of begins to shape this chapter

and what Jesus is going to talk about. And we

see that as we continue on in the next verse.

Listen to what he says in verse 14. The Pharisees,

who were lovers of money, were listening to all

these things and scoffing at him. All right?

We kind of see the key, right? He's talking about

money. He's talking about those who've been unfaithful.

So we can kind of see from this story here who

are the unfaithful ones that he's pointing this

at. The ones in the crowd that are listening

are the Pharisees. These would have been Jewish

people. They would have thought they were pretty

holy. They would have really probably held themselves

up to a pretty high standard. They would have

thought that they were holier than a lot of the

rest of the folks. But what does it say about

these people? lovers of money. They loved their

money. Now is that any of us? Do we love our

money? You may say, well I'm not rich. Well maybe

you're not rich but you can still love your money.

You might have two pennies to rub together and

that might be all you have and you may keep them

in a jar buried in your backyard and go out there

and rub them together every couple weeks and

just have a good old time. You don't have to

have a lot of money to love your money. And these

Pharisees They love their money, and they miss

what Jesus was saying. He's saying, look, you

need to be faithful with what you got. And instead

of them saying, yeah, am I faithful with what

I got? That's what we need to do when we read

this, see this parable that's on its manager.

We need to say, okay, am I being faithful with

what I got? But they didn't do that. Instead,

when they heard Jesus say this, they scoffed

at him. How dare you say such things? Who are

you talking about? They were really trusting

in their money, it appears. You can't be a slave

to two masters. You can't be a slave to God and

to money. It's right there in black and white.

And obviously these Pharisees, these Jewish folks,

they were really putting a lot of focus on their

money. And that had become an important thing

to them. In verse 15 it says, And he told them,

You are the ones who justify yourselves in the

sight of others. But God knows your heart, for

what is highly admired by people is revolting

in God's sight. Okay? So in their eyes, in their

own eyes, the Pharisees said, hey, we're pretty

good. We're pretty godly people. We're pretty

religious people. We are pretty awesome, and

we've got money, and we love that too. And Jesus

says, hold up. Now, you may say to yourself that

you're awesome, and you may tell everybody else

how awesome you are, and you may even fool a

few people. But don't forget this, God knows

the heart. That's pretty important for us to

think about that, not just in terms of money,

but just in everything that we do and everything

that we've thought this week, all of our actions.

Like God knows your heart behind it. We've got

to be careful. We've really got to check our

heart because sometimes our heart can deceive

us. Sometimes we have to check our own motives.

Sometimes we can't really be sure of what our

motives are. Maybe they're pure or maybe they're

not pure. God knows the heart, so we need to

seek God and help Him to work on our heart, help

us to be able to examine our heart and see what's

there. Maybe there are some things there that

shouldn't be there. Obviously, that was the case

in the Pharisees, and even though Jesus was trying

to teach them something, they just scoffed at

what He had to say. What about us today? Are

we just going to scoff at what the Word of God

tries to say to us? Is Jesus speaking to us?

Are we lovers of money? Are we using... what

God has given us, to help others. Well, that

kind of sets the stage for this story of Lazarus

and the rich man. And so we see the story unfold

for us. The rich man had lots of money. He wore

purple. I mean, you had to be pretty wealthy

to have purple. That was a valuable garment back

then. Certain colors were really hard to make

and really expensive, and purple would have been

one of them. And this rich man had purple, and

he had everything you could possibly want. He

was well taken care of and lived a good life,

it appears. But there was also a man named Lazarus,

and he was a poor man. It said he'd be placed

at the gate of the rich man, just hoping. he

could get some scraps from the king's, excuse

me, not the king, the rich man's table, hoping

he could get a few scraps from his table. But

he didn't even get that. It says instead he got

dogs that came to lick his sores. Now you have

a contrast between two totally different people.

One that is rich and that is living lavishly,

it says. just feasting, eating plenty of good

food, the best of the best. One is as high up

as you can be, at least in the terms of what

the world says is good, right? I mean, how do

we define success in this world? I mean, we defined

it with how big a house you get, how much money

you got, how famous you are. I mean, there's

lots of ways that we define success in the world.

And by the worldly standards, this rich man would

have been successful. In every way. And how would

we define somebody who's unsuccessful? Somebody

who's a loser. Somebody who don't have anything.

Somebody who can't afford a place to live. Somebody

who wears rags for clothes. Somebody that's stinky

and nasty and dirty. Like they're just the lower

part of society. And so there's this temptation

as humans. There's this temptation we see. We

see all the good things that the world says are

good. The wealth and the fame and the clothes

and the money and all that. And we're drawn to

that and we seek that. And maybe we kind of scoff

at the poor man or the poor woman. So Jesus is

setting up a big contrast here. One person is

as high as you can be in the world and one person

is as low as you can be in the world. All right,

what does Jesus say? He says, one day, verse

22, one day the poor man died and was carried

away by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich

man also died and was buried and being in torment

in Hades. All right, so again, we see a big difference.

But we see a reversal of roles. The man who had

everything in this world was now as low as he

could be. He was in Hades. He was in hell, if

we can call it that. But the poor man who was

so low in this world, now he's in heaven. He's

in Abraham's presence. Their roles have been

reversed. One of them had everything in this

world and had nothing in the life to come. And

one of them had nothing in this world and had

gained everything in the life to come. Now the

rest of the story is pretty intense. It's pretty

intense. We see the rich man. He's just begging

for some relief. He's begging for it. Could you

send Lazarus to me? Just a drop of water. Just

a drop of water. I'm in intense pain and torment

here where I am in these flames, he says. Could

you send Lazarus to me? And Abraham says to him,

look, when you were alive in the world, you had

everything. You had everything. And Lazarus had

nothing. And where did it get this man that he

had everything? It got him in extreme torment.

Now I believe maybe the point that Jesus is trying

to make is that this rich man having everything

was not one who was faithful with what God had

given him. There was an opportunity at his door

every day. At his gate every day said a man who

was in need. Every day a man had and there was

a man who didn't and he could have helped meet

that need and every day he failed to do so. He

loved his money. He loved his money. But he wasn't

faithful with what he had. So this man's in torment

and agony. He says, look, if you cannot help

me, If you cannot help me, would you at least

send Lazarus back to tell my brothers, hey, y

'all better straighten up. Would you at least

send them back to that? And Abraham said, look,

they got Moses, they got the law, they got the

prophets, they can listen to them. And the rich

man says, but if a man would come back from the

dead, they would listen to that. They'd pay attention

to that. And Abraham says, no, they've got what

they've got. They'll believe what they've been

told or they won't. Now it's interesting in this

story, when you read this story and you read

of the rich man, you'll notice, you may have

noticed when we were reading through it, that

every time that he talks about Abraham, he always

calls him father. Father Abraham. Father Abraham.

Father this. He always calls Abraham father and

Abraham calls him son. Now that's significant.

Maybe not as much to us, but it's certainly significant

to the story. It appears as though this was a

Jewish man. This was a Jewish man who thought

that he had it all figured out. Remember, he

had just a few verses before talked about these

Pharisees who loved money. They were Jewish people

who loved their money. And in this story, we

see this main character, this rich man. And he's

a Jewish man who keeps calling on his father

Abraham, father Abraham, father Abraham, father

Abraham. And that was a big problem for a lot

of the Jewish people we see in Scripture. And

some today. That was a big problem. They said,

but we're descendants of Abraham. By our blood,

we are descendants of Abraham. But we know through

the Scripture that that's not enough to save

you. Having Jewish blood running through your

veins is not going to save you. It's the blood

of Jesus Christ that's going to save you. And

this man, though he was a Jew and though he continued

to call on Abraham, and even though Abraham acknowledged

him as son, that is, I get that you're one of

my descendants, but you missed what God was calling

you to. You missed the law and the prophets.

You may have knew them, you may have heard them,

but you didn't live by them. Because what matters

to God is to love him and to help other people.

And here you were in your riches for all of your

life, living a lavish life and feasting every

day, wearing the finest of clothes. And there

were people with a need and you failed to meet

that need. And here's the result of that. You

don't really know God. And you're suffering the

consequences of that. And here this man is. In

great torment. He says, if you just send Lazarus

back. If you just send Lazarus back to my brothers.

But Abraham said they got the law and the prophets.

Now there were certainly plenty of people in

Jesus' day that knew about the law and the prophets.

They knew about Moses. They knew about these

prophets in the Old Testament. And they'd still

miss the word of God. He said, but if you'd just

send somebody back from the dead, they would

believe. And God did just that. He sent his only

begotten son. Jesus was nailed to a cross. He

was crucified. He was buried. And he was resurrected.

He was brought back from the dead. And guess

what? There were still plenty of people who refused

Jesus Christ. And there are still plenty of people

who refuse Jesus Christ today. So what about

us? What about us? Are we rich? Well, maybe compared

to some we're not. Compared to others, we are.

There are so many people in this world. The vast

majority of people in this world are very poor.

Very poor. Compared to us, they would look at

us like we're rich, and we'd say, well, we're

just poor country folks from Liberty, Mississippi.

And I guarantee you that there is a majority

of people in this world that would look at you

if they saw what you had, and they would think

that you were rich. So we don't want to read

a story like this and say, oh, this is talking

about rich people. This ain't talking about me.

This is talking about the billionaires and the

trillionaires. Well, hold on. Maybe we don't

have as much as a billionaire or a trillionaire.

Maybe there's something we got that we can use

to help somebody. Maybe we're guilty of becoming

lovers of our wealth and lovers of what we have.

What good does that do us if we don't use it

for the Lord's work? Are you faithful with the

little that God gives you? I don't know the answer

to that. You know the answer to that. This is

not just a question. This is not just how you

need to put more money on the offering plate

type thing. Not at all. There are people in the

world that we encounter that have a need, and

can we meet those needs? The rich man didn't

do that. The rich man looked down upon Lazarus

day after day after day because he cared more

about his money than he cared about. Somebody

else. What about us today? It's a good opportunity

for us to kind of take a second and think about

our own life and what we're doing. Maybe there's

people in our life that we've been passing by.

Maybe there's a Lazarus in our life that's just

hoping, that just needs something. We just pass

them by day after day. Ask God to show you who

those people are. Maybe you just haven't recognized

them yet. Sometimes we get busy, we get caught

up in ourselves and get selfish, and that's not

good either. But sometimes we encounter these

people and we just don't realize it. Ask God

to help us to see. Help us to see those people

that we may have already been encountering, that

we may encounter this week or in the weeks to

come. Help us to see those people and not turn

a blind eye to them. To say, I may not have much.

But I want to use some of what I've got to help

somebody else. Because if we don't do that, if

our heart's not on helping other people, now

look, I'm not telling you that you're going to

make it to heaven from helping other people.

I'm not saying that you're going to earn your

way to heaven. I'm not telling you that if you

just give, give, give enough to enough people

on the street, enough of your neighbors, that

God's going to see that and He's just going to

give you instant access. I'm not saying that

is the case. What I'm saying is, that if we've

trusted Jesus Christ, then there should be some

desire within us to try to help people when we

can. Maybe there are times that we can help,

or maybe there aren't. Do you know what the Holy

Spirit's convictions are? You know what you can

do and what you can't do. This is not a feel

guilty about not doing or needing to do more.

This is about we need to seek God and say, God,

all right, I need you to help my heart and help

me to see if there's areas where I'm lacking.

And this rich man was lacking. He had the opportunity

to serve, and he failed to serve. Let us not

be guilty of the same thing. Let us not be guilty

of so many who came after this rich man, who

had the word of God before him, who had Moses,

who had the law, who had the prophets, and most

importantly, who had Jesus Christ. A man who

was raised from the dead, the Son of God, who

died for your sins so that you could be forgiven.

There are a lot of people that have read the

Word of God that have heard of Jesus Christ and

they didn't believe it. That's all that God can

give us. That's all that God will give us is

Jesus Christ. He is enough. Have you trusted

Him today and are you living for Him? And if

you have trusted Him and you are living for Him,

And ask him to help your heart to change so that

you'll have a heart that's willing and able to

help others. Let's pray. God, we come to you.

We thank you for your good words. And there's

a lot to think about and consider about this

passage, dear Lord. But help us not to miss the

point, dear Lord. I pray that you would help

us to examine our own lives, to see what our

heart's like, to see what's going on. Dear Lord,

maybe we are richer than we realize. Dear Lord,

maybe we have the opportunity to... Help somebody

else. Dear Lord, maybe there are some in here,

dear Lord, and they're the Lazarus today. Maybe

they're struggling. And maybe there are some

in here that have the ability to help them, God.

But I pray, God, that you would help us to examine

our hearts and not be lovers of money. We've

got to have money to survive, dear Lord, but

we don't ever want it to become our God. So I

pray, dear Lord, that we just would see the truth

of your word, the truth of Jesus Christ. That

we would put our faith and trust in Him and let

that change our heart to have a love for others

like He does for us. And I ask these things in

Jesus' name. Amen.